A subsidiary of the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) is taking part in the government’s common tower program, which aims to accelerate the delivery of mobile communication services in the country.
Meralco Industrial Engineering Services Corporation (MIESCOR) is one of eight firms licensed by the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to operate as independent tower companies (ITCs). Each ITC particularly secured a certificate of registration good for five years.
The other firms are CEEC Tower Inc., Communication and Renewable Energy Infrastructure Phils., Desarrollos Terrestres Inc., ISOC Edotco Towers Inc., Ison Tower Ltd. Inc., Transcend Towers Infrastructure (Philippines) Inc., and LBS Technologies Asia Pacific Corp.
MERALCO is no stranger to ventures other than its core business of providing electricity. Another subsidiary, Radius Telecoms, launched its Red Broadband service back in November 2020.
The DICT has sped up the construction of shared towers in the country with a joint memorandum circular issued back in August 2020, which shortened to less than a month the processing time of securing permits to build common towers.
Following this development, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) said the government issued a total of 4,544 tower construction permits from July to November 2020, which is a notable improvement from last year.
NTC data also showed that the country had a total 22,405 towers as of November. Globe Telecom leads with 10,270 towers, closely followed by Smart Communications with 10,069. Third player DITO Telecommunity, meanwhile, has 2,066.
The DICT aims to increase the number of towers to 50,000 nationwide in the next five to 10 years.